{"id":2123,"date":"2016-12-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/2018\/02\/01\/innovation-anthology-829\/"},"modified":"2018-05-10T03:31:41","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T03:31:41","slug":"innovation-anthology-829","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/2016\/12\/06\/innovation-anthology-829\/","title":{"rendered":"#829: SmileSonica: Inventing A New Dental Ultrasound Gel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovationanthology.com\/uploads\/Innovation Anthology 829.mp3\">Download MP3 Link<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It took Cristian Scurtescu of SmileSonica over eight years to develop and commercialize his product &#8211; the Aevo System.<br style=\"\" \/><br style=\"\" \/>This is a medical device which uses ultrasound to enhance the effectiveness of dental braces.<br style=\"\" \/><br style=\"\" \/>Ultrasound doesn&#8217;t work without a good slathering of gel to provide a connection. <br style=\"\" \/><br style=\"\" \/>But &nbsp;Cristian discovered he even had to invent the unique gel to work with his product&#8217;s mouth piece.<br style=\"\" \/><br style=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">CRISTIAN  SCURTESCU: &nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"> It was quite an interesting experience. &nbsp;This is a gel  that we had to develop from scratch because it is used in the mouth and  it&#8217;s going to be used for coupling ultrasound, so it has to have special  properties. &nbsp;So we &nbsp;had to test it, had to make sure it&#8217;s good for  transmitting ultrasound, and it&#8217;s also something the patient can safely  use everyday, and it helps with the ultrasound therapy. &nbsp; Actually, the  gel has no taste. &nbsp;We did a number of focus groups and we found out that  a gel with no taste is the best gel for our application because if you  don&#8217;t have a taste, you&#8217;re not generating saliva. &nbsp;And if you don&#8217;t  generate saliva, you&#8217;re not going to wash away the gel. &nbsp; &nbsp;And that  actually also helps with the comfort, because having the gel firm and  staying in place inside the mouhguard , you know, you wouldn&#8217;t have your  mouth full of gel. <br style=\"\" \/><\/span><br style=\"\" \/>Cristian Scurtescu says the next step for SmileSonica is to expand into the United States.<br style=\"\" \/><br style=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Thanks today to<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"> ALBERTA INNOVATES<\/span><br style=\"\" \/><br style=\"\" \/>FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY<br style=\"\" \/>I&#8217;M CHERYL CROUCHER<br style=\"\" \/><\/span><br style=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Guest<\/h2>\n<h3> , <\/h3>\n<h4>, , , , <\/h4>\n<h2>Sponsor<\/h2>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/www.albertainnovates.ca\">Alberta Innovates<\/a><\/h3>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_1_4  et_pb_column_1\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text et_pb_module et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_left  et_pb_text_0\">\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 2\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Alberta Innovates<\/span> is a provincially funded Corporation with a mandate to deliver 21st century solutions for the most compelling challenges facing Albertans. We do this by building on our province&rsquo;s research and technology development strengths in the core sectors of health, environment, energy, food and fibre and platforms such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and omics. We are working with our partners to diversify Alberta&rsquo;s economy, improve our environmental performance and enhance our well-being through research and innovation.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_text et_pb_module et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_left  et_pb_text_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_text et_pb_module et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_left  et_pb_text_0\">The Alberta Innovates system has roots stretching back almost 90 years  \t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_text et_pb_module et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_left  et_pb_text_1\">\n<p>In March, 2016 the consolidation of Alberta Innovates was announced  and on November 1, a single, integrated innovation powerhouse, Alberta  Innovates, was formed. Two applied research subsidiaries &#8211; Innotech Alberta and C-Fer Technologies &#8211;&nbsp; serve public and private sector interests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_text et_pb_module et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_left  et_pb_text_2\">\n<p>The Alberta Innovates system was first created in January 2010, as  part of an overall innovation framework developed within the Alberta  Research and Innovation Act. At that time, four corporations were  established:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bio Solutions<\/li>\n<li>Energy and Environment Solutions<\/li>\n<li>Health Solutions<\/li>\n<li>Technology Futures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Alberta Innovates system has a 90-year legacy. Our expertise is built on the successes of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alberta Institute for Agriculture<\/li>\n<li>Forestry and the Environment<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Agricultural Research Institute<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Forestry Research Institute<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Life Sciences Institute<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Ingenuity<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Research Council<\/li>\n<li>iCORE<\/li>\n<li>nanoAlberta<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Water Research Institute (AWRI)<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI)<\/li>\n<li>Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/innovationanthology.com\/uploads\/ian logo AI LOGO_COLOUR.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Program Date:<\/strong>\u00a02016-12-06<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One thing Cristian Scurtesco of SmileSonica had to do as part of the commercialization process to bring the ultrasonic Aevo System to market was develop from scratch a non-toxic gel<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">. (Alberta Innovates)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,64,2,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alberta","category-alberta-innovates","category-health-and-medicine","category-technology","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2-16cristian_scurtescu_sm.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2123"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5407,"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123\/revisions\/5407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.innovationanthology.com\/import\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}